Tommy Tuberville

Its a mess for college football, thats a fact, but its hard for me to be able to justify the state regulating what people do with their Names, Images, or Likenesses. Especially when whats derived from that is in no way dangerous. An Electrician should be regulated to some extent because his work matters to peoples homes/businesses/lives and could literally be life or death if done improperly, but a 20 year old appearing in commercials or on billboards? I dont see how that is any of the governments business.

Agents.  Which agents?  Dads?  Moms?  Never mind... those two terms are redundant.

Don't disagree, but isn't there already some regulating bodies for professional sports agents? Just use the same regulating bodies. Not an expert here.

It is.  So what do we do now with the toothpaste that's out of the tube?  Just can't leave it sitting in the sink!  Or on the counter top!  Or on the toothbrush!  Has to be a way to deal with it.  Again, my only fear is that if it becomes a FEDERAL issue than there will be a lot of folks in the government, and in the states, who want to get their hands in the pie...including unions.

Again, don't disagree, but at least Tommy Tuberville has some real experience and knowledge on this subject.

Deal with what exactly though coach.   From a 30,000 foot view, all that has happened is that now individuals who happened to be athletes and chose to attend UCLA and participate in intercollegiate athletics can choose to leave and transfer to Iowa (just like any other student) and participate in athletics without sitting out a year.  

I may be mistaken, but I think the vast majority of people confuse transfer rules and the "transfer portal"  I think the transfer portal is a GREAT thing.  Eliminates the need for all the backchannel stuff that happened before. Maybe some of you on the board were actually a part of that...sniffing around for one of your ex players who wasn't happy at his first school.   The "portal" is just a fairly transparent database that lets everyone see who has opened up their recruitment. 

Now, the new transfer rules as to eligibility...a bit less sure about.  I have wondered if change in eligibility clocks would help mitigate the amount of turnover.  Hey, you can transfer...but you have to sit out.  However, sitting out won't cost you a year.  But I am sure there are unforeseen issues with that. 

NIL-- College athletics did this to themselves.  Coaches and administrators turned school athletic programs into professional athletic organizations (with very low wage essentially free labor).   I have said for a long time that the current landscape and issues would not exist if Nick Saban made $160,000, Ohio State didn't have an athletic directory of well over 400 people (I stopped counting at that point) with 47 under Football, and LSU didn't have combination lockers/beds/imax theater.   

Regarding the NIL-- someone like Natalie Portman was getting paid for her Name, Image, and Likeness in advertisements while she was at Harvard.  In 2019, there were a LOT of #9 Burreaux Jerseys, T-Shirts etc. in the LSU bookstore, or licsensed by the NCAA/LSU.    Why shouldn't Joe Burrow get a taste?   College athletics did this to themselves. 

I get it.  The landscape is different.  It isn't one that we are familiar with, and therefore not comfortable with.  It has changed on us... but everything changes. 
 

Yeah I don't really see anyone being against NIL, especially since the money isnt coming from the school. But the transfer portal as it is now should be changed, that is something the NCAA shouldve done a while back.

Because we all trust Tubs to do the right and ethical thing.

Yes.  The landscape HAS changed, and it IS different.  Glad I'm not part of it anymore.  FORE!!  

That is the rationalization that I fall into all the time too.  It does kind of suck for that FCS coach, but conversely, if VT or UVA turned to that guy and said "Hey, we want to offer you 6 years $4 million a year" does the coach actually turn out the lights in the office on his way out? 

Almost all of the points of contention  from every faction--current college coaches, fan bases, etc. would not exist if the coaches and administrators didn't turn it into a professional sports entity (reaping the benefits for themselves) over the past 40-60 years.  

There's a broader trend in the world at large about worker mobility, and in a way the transfer stuff is part of it. If you're the best software engineer at Joe Schmo Technologies, and Google comes and offers you a big pile of money to go there, you take the money and go. In the past at times there may have been non-competes and things like that, but those seem to be on the way out (with some exceptions).

In the example of an FCS kid who turns out to be a stud and promptly goes to a P5 school, and it being "unfair". In a way it is unfair I suppose - the coach discovered the kid, recruited them, gave them a chance, and then loses them 1-2 years in... but for the kid if he has the opportunity to go play P5 and he wants to, wouldn't it be unfair to him to not give him that opportunity? Certainly compared to other kids who were recruited out of high school who maybe turn out to not be as good, hard working, or motivated.

As someone said above, if these were just club teams and sports was just fun recreation, then sure I guess - impose more rules to limit transfers (in part to protect kids so they don't mess up their academic careers by transferring around), and the option is always just don't play. But in a world where there is that much money, it seem hard to effectively limit opportunities. Keep in mind too that much of what we call "recruiting" is there because you can't (directly) recruit the way every other job in the country does: by offering more money and benefits. So it's all this other stuff. Don't have to like it, but it's kind of hard to argue against it.

On the NIL stuff, I think some of it just needs time -- in 10 years we'll know a lot more about it and it will mature. I do think some kind of truly fair minded NCAA or similar board that actually was set up to help student athletes would be great, but not a bunch of narrow federal rules designed to limit things (and which probably would have the effect of just entrenching the top dogs). I worry less about a kid making money from NIL deals than kids getting scammed for fake ones, or that promise a little bit up front and then don't materialize or have unfortunate terms on the back end. We're in this very funny place because the NCAA - at the direction of schools - wanted it all or nothing, and now we have still nothing direct with the schools but a shadow NIL operating in some instances as the wild west.

How does NIL violate anti trust laws?

I could see transfer portal being viewed as such, but nobody is saying you cant switch schools- just if you do, and you compete in this organized league, there is a minimum period to sit out.

That's the issue.  Colleges have spent over 70 years propagating an amateur model and keeping athletes from being considered university employees.  A contract such as you suggest, 100% sure fire "employee" status.  

Well, remember that they are "not" (wink wink) getting paid to play.  They are getting paid by sponsors for the use of their name, their image, and their likeness as Spokesperson/representatives.  That avoids a lot of issues such as Title 9, Equal pay act etc.  

College athletics is not just college football, mens basketball, and a handful of women's basketball/mens baseball and a smattering of other inviduals.  So if we just give them employment contracts, explain to me the process of handling the women's field hockey team.


It is much more complex, as are all things when they start to serve purposes other than what was originally intended.  
A prime example--as public education continues to shift from academic institution to childhood social safety net (and political lightning rod)  it becomes a much more complicated beast. 

I think there would be some severe unintended and unknown consequences if schools decided to just abandon the idea of being a college activity all together, and just became true professional sports teams.  Is the team that plays in Death Valley, Baton Rouge really a college football team if guys are signing employment contracts?  Or is it just a professional football team that is wearing purple and gold and playing in a stadium that was build on the Louisiana State University Campus?